Commercial | THE WEITZ COMPANY
Star of the North
THE WEITZ COMPANY'S PASSION FOR ITS VALUES AND LEAN ARE KEY TO ITS GROWTH. BY CHRIS KELSCH
T
he Weitz Company has a long
and storied history. Founded in
1855, it is the oldest commercial
general contractor found west of
the Mississippi River. Headquartered in Des
Moines, Iowa, the company descends from
a small carpentry shop founded by German
immigrant Charles H. Weitz in what was
then Fort Des Moines.
He handed down his values and craftsmanship to four generations of his family,
and today the company has 11 offices
throughout the United States. Though the
company is no longer family owned, having
been bought in 2012 by Orascom Construction Limited, it continues to excel in a full
range of Commercial building types as well
as the industrial agriculture, manufacturing and heavy industrial markets.
Given the business's strong heritage
and history, it seems hard to believe Weitz
waited until it was 160 years old before it
opened an office in Minnesota, just one
state to the north of its headquarters. In
2013, the company began construction
of Trillium Woods in Plymouth, Minn., a
500,000-square-foot, award-winning continuing care retirement community.
In 2014, the company opened Weitz Professional Services (WPS) Group in the North
Star state. The WPS business unit delivers
design/build solutions for agricultural,
feed, seed and grain processing; pet food;
The Weitz Company
www.weitz.com
* Revenue: $1. 1 billion
* Headquarters: Des Moines, Iowa
* Employees: 1,200
"We want to build for ose
at hare our passion for afety, quality and lean
implementation. To Build A
Be er Way."
- Dave Rahe, Minnesota executive
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CONSTRUCTION-TODAY.COM MAY 2017
mobile safety trailers are
» Weitz's
utilized for task-specific safety
training for project teams.